


second chances we're given

by Areiton



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Gen, Grief/Mourning, New Year's Eve, One-sided pining, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Pre-Slash, Protective Bucky Barnes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 03:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 360
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22060618
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Areiton/pseuds/Areiton
Summary: He hates seeing Peter sad.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Peter Parker, James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 1
Kudos: 92





	second chances we're given

Bucky slips out of the party and down the hall, to the rooftop access that is quiet and still and silent. 

He knows where he’s going,and exactly what he’s going to find, and his heart aches, a low thrum of it, because even knowing, he doesn’t want this. 

He hates seeing Peter sad. 

He slips outside, and there he is, exactly where he expected to find Peter, sitting cross-legged by the pool, shoulders bowed, still and silent. 

Bucky sighs and comes up behind him, nudges him with his knee before he drops gracefully to sit next to him. 

They’re both ruining their suits, but he thinks Peter at least can afford it--he was named in Tony’s will, heir to more than just EDITH and his Avenger’s legacy. 

“You’re missing the party, kid,” he says, and Peter shrugs. 

“Don’t really feel like celebrating.” 

That’s the rub. The world keeps turning, and the year is ending and both of them are stuck, right where they were when the world came back to life. 

He came back--and Steve didn’t. 

Peter lived--and Tony died, traded away his life for the universe and the boy. 

How exactly do you move on, when regret and pain welcome you home? 

It was the what ifs--he thinks, for both of them. 

What if he had finally told Steve how he felt, how he’d always felt. 

What if Peter had been older, or Tony had been younger, or a few more years had passed. 

What if they both got the second chance they wanted, instead of the one death bought them. 

He closes his eyes. 

“I keep thinking--every day takes me further from him,” Peter says. “The year ending feels like it’s impossibly far.” 

Bucky leans into him, and Peter sighs, and adjusts himself against his bulk, his fluffy curls tickling Bucky’s nose. 

“We’ll go together,” Bucky promises and he knows it’s not who Peter wants--knows that Peter isn’t who  _ he _ wants, but when Peter smiles up at him, sad and sweet, he thinks maybe the second chance they didn’t ask for, but the one they got--maybe it isn’t  _ all  _ bad. 


End file.
